A MiddLab Project

Carravetta reads and discusses the introduction to his upcoming book: "After all: critical theory and the geography of culture at the end of the Postmodern age." The book deals with three interconnected themes. The postmodern debate brought out the deficiencies of hyperrational models of analysis, including the dangers of globalization, but did not succeed in stemming
the tide toward a less instrumental and market-oriented notion of culture. As a result, in the XXI century, cultural production and the exchange of values do not follow any humanistic logic and are creating a systematically conflictual reality based on profit, fear and near
complete control and manipulation of facts. Therefore, a post-communist dystopia, or what he calls an Orwellian warp.

Baseball is certainly Japan’s most popular sport, in part because players there are said to embody bushido, an ancient set of values said to have described samurai gentlemen of old. However, bushido is far from timeless and unchanging. Instead, it is a dynamic term that has changed, especially in the 20th Century, as Japanese society has struggled to maintain its unique identity despite the homogenizing pressures of globalization. I argue that baseball players bring about this change by setting examples for the rest of society, and that as the behavior of players has evolved, the popular perception of bushido and the way Japanese citizens idealize their own history has evolved right with them.